US fires global subsidiarization starting gun

Foreign banks are facing up to the implications of new rules in the US requiring them to hold capital onshore. But subsidiarization is set to become a global phenomenon. Bankers argue they will be hamstrung by trapped liquidity and capital. Customers might lose out as well. What are the true costs of ensuring national safety in a global banking system?

When the embattled management of Lehman Brothers decided to transfer $8 billion of client money from its international subsidiaries to its New York headquarters on Friday, September 12, 2008, they were also signing the death warrant of global banking.

National regulators across the world have spent the last five and a half years figuring out how to make sure that they are never again left with the bill when a foreign bank operating on their turf goes bust.

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